CES hands on: Mad Catz official Street Fighter arcade sticks

On display alongside the latest build of Street Fighter IV were the hotly- …

We spent some quality time with Street Fighter IV today, but the game wasn't the only story to tell. Capcom also had the full set of Mad Catz official Street Fighter IV controllers. The game's display rotated a set of Sega-style six-button joypads branded with the game's art, but the true draw was the playable, retail-ready official arcade sticks.

The arcade sticks come in two flavors: a small-box, relatively low-key stick that essentially falls in line with the average console arcade stick offering, and a more robust, arcade-quality stick that retails for almost $200. You can see both modeled in the video below.

Both sticks share some similar design elements. The start and select buttons are located on the back face to keep them away from the eight play face buttons, which could prove painful during a session of furious button-mashing. Likewise, the small Xbox guide and PlayStation home buttons in the top left corner have a locking mechanism which prevents them from being activated during play.

As for the sticks and the buttons themselves, the premium stick has literally been ripped right from a Japanese arcade. The parts themselves are all arcade-caliber and the body design was explicitly meant to mimic the Japanese-style arcade cabinets. Other bonuses, such as mounting holes underneath the unit designed to allow it to be bolted down to the play table, make this the most hardcore arcade stick of the generation.

But the best feature for the premium version is that all of the pieces within are user-replaceable. Our guided tour of the unit was concluded with it being disassembled completely. Users can easily and quickly swap out the stick, all of the buttons, and even most of the circuitry to get the unit to their satisfaction. Intelligently-designed innards, complete with some extensive labeling and color-coded wiring, will make this a great buy for hobbyists.

Needless to say, the Mad Catz peripherals looked impressive. Most might shy away from buying such third-party products, but these sticks are incredible. We'll be shelling out for our own when the sticks hit retail alongside Street Fighter IV in mid-February.